In this post I begin a more detailed discussion of the technical background of InDesign’s SWF and XFL export processes. This series will be based largely on a white paper researched and written by Adobe’s Matt Laun.
Both of InDesign’s Flash export formats are designed to represent InDesign content as accurately as possible, with emphasis placed on preserving the visual appearance of the InDesign document.
InDesign CS4 delivers the ability to move your InDesign layouts to the web and beyond via SWF and XFL export features. The former creates a web-ready .swf file that’s intended to be the final form for delivery, and not editable. XFL, on the other hand, is a new, XML Flash native file format. The purpose of this export path is to enable you to take your InDesign layouts and convert them into a native Flash CS4 documents that can then be opened and enhanced with all the powerful interactive capabilities of Flash CS4.
We finished our Asian CS4 launch tour in Singapore. Thanks to everyone who turned out. Paul, Karl and I had the privilege of showing much of what’s new in the CS4 Design, Web, and Production suites.
We had a full house in KL, and a very responsive crowd. It’s a pleasure to be able to present to groups like we had there.
I (and my colleagues Paul Burnett and Karl Soule) would like to thank the Adobe teams in Mumbai, Hong Kong, and Taipei, as well as all of the great people that turned out for our CS4 launch events. The events were a blast, and it was a pleasure seeing old friends and making new ones. A big, heartfelt "thank you!" to all of you who turned out to share the day with us in all three cities.
